Our Microbes and Implications of Alien Life

Apparently, the bacteria in your stomach controls your emotions and behaviors much more than you realize. A fascinating video by asapSCIENCE has dubbed this extensive network the "the second brain" and explains how it works. 

"In other words, your digestive system is your second brain, and it controls you far more than you realise.

I know what you're thinking here - just because the gut can pass messages back to the brain, doesn't mean it's in control. But it turns out our digestive system also influences our choices on a daily basis.

This is most likely because back when our ancestors were living as hunter gatherers, some of the most important life-or-death choices they'd have to make were based on food: would eating a berry provide enough energy to get through the day? Would it be poisonous?

Because of this, from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense to have a direct line of communication between the gut and the brain."

Strangely, the video makes me think about aliens and any potential future encounters. As a human, I recognize human-like entities as life forms. I don't necessarily see or understand how a very different life forms, like microorganisms. 

Even despite plenty of evidence that what we consider less "complex" life-forms, like trees, are actually pretty advanced, we still have a very anthropocentric view of the natural world. 

Will the aliens recognize me as an entity or view only the sum of my parts and interact directly with my microbes? Most life on Earth is microscopic, not in human. And whether we like it or not, these small creatures have significant control over us.